August 18, 2021
Media Contact:
Justin Giorgio
Derrick Van Orden Statement on Afghan Refugees Coming to Fort McCoy
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, WI – Following the announcement that Afghan refugees will temporarily be housed at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, Derrick Van Orden released the following statement:
I lived, worked, and fought alongside the Afghan people during two tours there as a Navy SEAL. Thousands of Afghanis assisted the United States and our other coalition allies in first defeating the Taliban, and then keeping them at bay for two decades. The United States made a commitment to the people of Afghanistan, and we must uphold our end of the bargain. As a nation, our word must be our bond.
The stakes are hitting home to us here in WI-03 as the Biden administration has announced that they will be housing an unknown number of these refugees in our own Fort McCoy.
With this said, due to the extraordinarily botched retreat from Kabul, the American people have little to no confidence in the Biden administration’s ability to ensure that a thorough vetting process will be conducted for each of these refugees.
The Biden administration needs to answer the following questions: what processes will be used to ensure that every foreign national entering our state is a former ally? What is the long term plan for the refugees that will be granted asylum? And most importantly, what will be done with the Afghans that are found to have worked with the Taliban? Will they be interned in Guantanamo, or deported back to Afghanistan?
The fact that these questions have not been answered is yet another example of this administration inability to understand or plan for secondary, unintended consequences of poor policy decisions.
I would have hoped they leaned from the fiasco they created on our border with poor policy that a lack of forethought and leadership results in negative consequences.
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